Why You Should Wear The 6 Thinking Hats On Your Blog

What are the 6 Thinking Hats?

Dr. Edward de Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats is a simple, effective parallel thinking process that helps people be more productive, focused, and mindfully involved. And once they’re learned, the tools can be applied immediately!

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The premise of this concept is that the human brain thinks in a number of distinct ways which can be identified, deliberately accessed and hence used in a structured way to develop strategies for thinking about particular issues.

De Bono identifies six distinct states in which the brain can be “sensitized”. In each of these states, the brain will identify and bring into conscious thought certain aspects of issues being considered.

the White Hat, which calls for information that’s known or needed: “The facts, just the facts.”

the Yellow Hat, which symbolizes brightness and optimism; under this hat you explore the positives and probe for value and benefit

the Black Hat, which is judgment—the devil’s advocate that spots the difficulties and dangers, and where things might go wrong; this is probably the most powerful and useful of the Hats but a problem if overused

the Red Hat, which signifies feelings, hunches and intuition; when using this hat, you can express emotions and feelings and share fears, likes, dislikes, loves, and hates

the Green Hat, which focuses on creativity, the possibilities, alternatives, and new ideas; it’s an opportunity to express new concepts and new perceptions

the Blue Hat, which is used to manage the thinking process; it’s the control mechanism that ensures the Six Thinking Hats guidelines are observed.

How to wear the 6 Thinking Hats on your blog

Blogging is a testimonial of an individual’s thoughts, creativity, and literary expressions. And the quality of the content you create on your blogs is directly linked to the quality of your thoughts. Given that de Bono’s principles focus on mindful thinking, the Thinking Hats concept is highly relevant to blogging.

In my journey as a blogger for more than two years, I have published 1000+ blogs and have been featured in several forums, communities, and reputable sites. And when I look at the body of work that I have created, I realize today that I have consciously and unconsciously worn these many hats in my blogging.

The Six Thinking Hats can help you create diverse content on your blog, keep it vibrant, enjoy blogging, and create a meaningful relationship with your readers. Here’s how.

The White Hat

Ensure that some content in your blogs are based on hard data and facts. This can be information that you personally know, or links to articles, research, and literature available in published sources.

This is important because:

You tend to read and learn about key data and facts before you can blog about them

Sometimes the data itself can alter your and others views, comprehension, opinions, judgments, perceptions, and conclusions on a subject

you have logged this data for your future reference, and also the reference of your readers

you build credibility when you support your views and opinions with hard facts and data

readers place more value on the content you generate, since your blog is not purely based on your thoughts and feelings

the chance that you’ll be quoted or referenced in other places is significantly higher than if you never wore the White Hat.

The Yellow Hat

Ensure that some content in your blogs gives a positive, bright and optimistic view. This is important because:

when you write positive stuff, you tend to think and feel positively

when anyone reads your blog, they take-away a positive thought, message or emotion

readers are more likely to share a positive post in their sphere of influence—the positivity just spreads and magnifies along the way! And it all started with your blog!

The Black Hat

Ensure that some content in your blogs highlights the difficulties, challenges, risks, dangers, and negatives of your topic. This is important because:

this is the reality of life and it needs to be reflected in your blogs; otherwise, you may appear to be in your own dream world, far from reality

having all positive, data-driven content does not give the real holistic picture for any topic, hence it is imperative to wear this hat.

The Red Hat

Ensure that some content in your blogs articulates your feelings, hunches, and intuitions. This is important because:

it makes you think, introspect, and feel

it also gets your readers to think, introspect, and feel

it makes you connect within—to draw from your creative imagination

it makes you acknowledge, recognize, and appreciate the power of your sixth sense.

The Green Hat

Ensure that some content in your blog is creative, innovative, novel, and radical. This could present your own views or thoughts or something you’ve read and would like to share with your readers. It’s important because:

when you read and hear such things, they transport you to a different plane—a different world in which you are able to view the world through a very different lens; this usually gives you a radically different perspective on any topic, and on life itself

when you immerse yourself in creative, innovative, novel and radical readings, thoughts and ideas, you tend to dream and visualize beyond the realm of the known.

The Blue Hat

Ensure that some content in your blogs is about processes. This is important because:

it makes you clear in your own mind about processes that should be followed

it gives you an opportunity to showcase your knowledge and understanding on subjects which you are aware of and strengthens your own personal brand.

Do you wear the 6 Thinking Hats on your blog?

You can wear the 6 Thinking Hats on your blog for many purposes:

to choose a topic that you will blog about

to write the title of your post

to create the actual blog content itself

You can wear one or many hats in a single blog post. But ensure that over a period of time—a month, for example—you wear at least four of the hats in your blog. We all wear the different thinking hats at some point, so the more you wear, the more likely you’ll be to meet the varying needs of your readers.

Do you wear all six thinking hats in your blog? Tell us in the comments.

This post was written by a guest contributor. Please see their details in the post above. If you'd like to guest post for ProBlogger check out our Write for ProBlogger page for details about how YOU can share your tips with our community.

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Comments

Having been an educator for 19 years, I know DeBono’s 6 Thinking Hats well and used it in my classroom when I taught. I never thought of using that same idea as part of my blog. However, I will be more mindful of it as I write new posts. Thank you for reminding us that our words and content need to appeal to many and what we write should be diverse as well.

Really loved the post. I never heard about those thinking hats, but it immediately made very much sense. I am going to read it more closely later to see if I use all those hats, and if so, how many of them I use in one post.

This is just silly. All you need to do: think. If you are a good writer and a good thinker, the rest just comes. If you wish to become a better writer and better thinker, write and think harder, then relax. Repeat. It is just like building strength in anything else. No need for six confusing hats.

Delwin – Thinking comes easily and naturally to some.. As does writing.. For for many, its not so easy.. If you are blogging for a long time and are in it for the long haul – such tools and techniques definitely help in generating diverse content..
Nischala

Looks like so many hats but like every blogger who wants to build a dream I got to do my best…to balance the hats on my head because if one falls, my dream blog would get scared and hide somewhere in the year 2014.

I felt really stressed out reading this, wondering how I would ever keep all these hats straight and make sure I gave each its due attention. I think first and foremost, we need to write about topics that are interesting to us or keeping up with a blog would get really monotonous. Perhaps these are good points to check after I have written an article, but to focus on them first would be confusing to me. Perhaps that is just an effect of each person’s mind working differently.

Thank you, I found this post really helpful. The 6 thinking hats method would be really good to use when writing new blog posts. Quite often I have a great idea in my head for a post but struggle to write this into a post, the 6 thinking hats will be a great way to use as a guideline.

I guess I am wearing a huge rainbow hat in running my blog. Doing all the above based on intuition. But it is very good to have it broken down and separated. When things go wrong, it makes it easier to analyze which hat has the hole. Interesting metaphors.

when it comes to creating content and blogging, I always wear the white hat, because I always strive to maintain a good reputation in connecting with people through my content, as well as always having the green light in search engine results pages, in being unique and genuine with my search engine optimization efforts :-)

I wear a multi-colored hat then, but I just didn’t know it. What an unique and interesting way to apply good habits in blogging. I admire you a lot for this post Nischala. This post was definitely well-thought of and really admirable. Thanks for the really good read.

I have learnt about DeBono’s 6 Thinking Hats but I never thought about it as something that can be effectively used in blogging…Thanks for bringing this to my attention…This shows that, nothing should be learnt in isolation…Even when something seems useless in your current field, you can find a way to make it applicable and fruitful. Great post!

Thanks.. Yes.. You need to be able to think through and apply concepts from different fields in your sphere of work.. While this is just in the context of individual blogging, this can be applied very well even in the corporate context

Great Post! I love “The Six Thinking Hats” and have introduced it to people I work with on a non-profit board. I had never thought about using them in my blogging. After reading your post I started thinking about which hats I’m usually wearing, and realized that I’m not being as diverse as I should be. Thank you for your post!

I usually change hats depending on my mood and the amount of time I have for each post. I like to diversify, but personally I like ready white hat posts the most, I like to get facts and make my own opinion, but there are always exceptions.